"Hitachi is planning to double production of hard-disk drives at its plant in Prachinburi, Thailand, the company has announced. ... Production of the company's 4GB capacity 1-inch Microdrive disk drives, which are found in digital music players such as Apple Computer's iPod Mini, will see the largest increase in percentage terms, said John Osterhout, director of marketing for Microdrive at HGST," according to IDG News Service.

According to Wired: Fuel-cell-powered laptop prototypes have been developed by Toshiba and NEC, who plan to start selling them as full-fledged products next year. Casio, Sony and Hitachi and Samsung of Korea are also working on micro fuel-cell technology. [John Goodman, president of the fuel cell division at Entegris, which makes fuel cell components] predicts that, in a matter of years, fuel cell-batteries no bigger than a cigarette lighter will run for 10 hours or more before being replaced. "After about 10 hours of operation, you will pop out a fuel-cell cartridge about the size of a Bic lighter or inkjet cartridge" and put in a fresh one, he said.